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BP Plc (BP) may restart its dividend payments early next year after choosing to suspend them in the aftermath of the explosion of its Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico in April, according to the BBC.

The oil company's board plans to meet by the end of the year to discuss reinstating a dividend payment by next March, the BBC reported, citing an interview with Bob Dudley, who takes over the CEO post from embattled BP Chief Tony Hayward later this week. Dudley didn't disclose further dividend plans for the company, which paid out about $11 billion in dividends last year, according to the BBC.

BP suspended dividend payments in June as costs related to the April 20 explosion, which killed 11 workers, escalated. The company, which owns 65% of the rig, took a second-quarter charge of $32.2 billion to account for expenses relating to the accident.

Dudley this week fired the executive at the center of the Gulf oil disaster and created a new division to improve safety. Andy Inglis, the head of the company's upstream business, will leave the company at the end of the year, BP said in a statement.

BP this week also filed documents with the Securities & Exchange Commission to sell notes due in 2015 and 2020. Though the company didn't specify how much money it hoped to raise, Bloomberg News, citing a person familiar with the process, said the debt may be worth as much as $3.5 billion.

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tj1108

ALERT ALERT. The feds have stopped drilling in more than just the gulf. Some drilling permits on the north slope of Alaska have been pulled, courtesy of the fed Govt regulators. If this trend is not reversed the US is going to be buying much more foreign oil in the near future. This will put the Saudies and Venuezuela more control on the price of oil again. Can we expext $200/bbl next time it goes up.

Ya an here we go paying for BPs mess. I think oil should be 15.00 a not 80.00 for alot of us can't even pay for food , rent , cloths , an our kids to go to school. Now we will be paying over 3.00 a gal for gas the way BP an the rest of these oil comp.s are going. They are not happy ontil they have more money an don't give a dam about the rest of us. Read your BIBLE an see what it say's about money. When is it going to stop??? I say it should stop now but whom am I they say !!!! God Bless Us All.